Cloudy with a Chance for Bears

Life.
Ever feel like you're treading water in the deep end of the pool
and all you really wanna do is reach the tiled-edge
so you can hang for a minute to catch your breath?
lol
So yesterday, Mr. Wonderful and Boofus gathered their camping n' fishing gear
and took off for Eleven Mile Canyon for the weekend.
Manly men doing manly things, ya know?

So when I got off work,
the girls and I went to grab a bite to eat
and then planned on a chick flick movie night
at home.
But just as we left the restaurant,
Mr W called.
He needed help because they locked the car keys
in the car.
The signal was so bad,
that I didn't get the chance to ask
if they had access to food or shelter--
just got the name of their campsite
and that was it.
So the girls and I filled the car with gas
and began our race with the sun to
get there before dark.
It's about an hour and a half to two hours from the Springs,
so we booked it up the mountains
and saw a severe thunderstorm
right over the direction we were headed.
Humongous dark clouds, lightening flashing every which way,
it lit up the roads and the entire horizon,
sheets of rain dropping from the clouds,
dark gray and heavy.
Nevermind, that before they left yesterday morning,
I'd checked the weather and it predicted
rain storms.
Mr W said, and I quote:
"We'll be fine."

My heart was clickin' along pretty good
at the thought of the guys huddled together
outside in the elements in a storm--
wondering what I was going to find when I got there.

Why is it, when you're in a situation like this,
that one mile feels like 20?
It felt like it took forever to get there,
and yet as we pulled into the campsite
just as the last rays of light
were disappearing behind a mountaintop,
I looked at the clock and it had taken us
just an hour and a half.
We found the car first,
and looked up a trail to see Mr W climbing out of their tent
to greet us.
Boofus came running, all smiles, and jumped into my car
yammering a mile a minute about his day--
catching fish and all the details about cleaning it,
just going on and on
so much that I just about missed the part about the bears:
There had been a mama black bear and two cubs
at their campsite earlier in the day,
according to the campground host.
Wait.
What?
A mama bear and two cubs?
In your campsite?
That very one?
Today? This morning?

I looked at the campsite
then back at him.
Then at the campsite
then back at Mr. W.

My concern was not hidden.
Just yesterday I'd read about the grizzly bear killing the hiker
at Yellowstone.
A mama grizzly bear with two cubs.

Mr. W had a mouth full of words coming at me--
something about the bears were there because it was empty,
blah blah blah...
{keep a knockin' but you can't come in...}
mama bear.
cubs.
this morning.
this campsite.
my son.
my husband.
MY SON.
BEARS.
TENT.

The Caboose didn't want us to leave the guys there--
the summer lightening show combined with the bear thing
freaked her little guts out.
Mr W assured me that they would be okay.
I calmly assured him that if anything happened to my boy,
I'd have to hurt him nigh unto death.


He did offer to have us sleep there over night too.
Uh. No thanks.
I like my safe. clean. non-bear bed.

We got home a little before 11pm.
No movie.
No popcorn.

No edge of the pool?
I got this.
No sweat.

@Sue aka Granny Sue: You've won a cd, please email me. I tried emailing you but got it back.